Chance to have a say on toll roads

The public has its first chance to have a say on proposals that motorists pay tolls for faster motorway trips to the airport and other destinations.

Transit holds the first of a series of information weeks tomorrow at North Harbour Stadium in Albany.

The plan has proved unpopular with the majority of people who have contacted the Herald, but Transit maintains that without them, it will be unable to complete Auckland's western bypass motorway system before at least 2025.

The highways agency wants seven tolling points along the 48km route, between Manukau in the south and Albany in the north.

Peak-time tolls at charging points will range from 75c to $1.50 for cars, and double those amounts for trucks.

The Government has committed $1.3 billion to fund the roads, but Transit says the tolls are needed to meet the shortfall of $800 million and a further $150 million for setting up tolling gantries and other infrastructure.

Further information weeks are planned at Manukau, Onehunga, Mt Albert, Mangere, Massey and Auckland City centre until the beginning of December.

The proposed scheme will not see cars and trucks having to stop at toll plazas as in previous schemes such as on the Auckland Harbour Bridge and the Tauranga bridge.

Instead, cameras mounted on overhead gantries will record vehicle number plates to start with, and electronic equipment may be added to read tags on windscreens. Motorists will be tracked through the vehicle-registration database and billed at regular intervals.

Transit is also mailing half a million pamphlets to homes for its consultation campaign, which it has titled "Want to get there quicker?"

The agency says it wants the first toll gantry ready in time for the opening late next year of a 4km stretch of motorway between Greenhithe and Albany.

The other projects would be completed in stages with everything finished by 2015.

* The public can also make views known by going to Transit NZ.